More school-finance storm clouds

Leaders of the Dodge City, Garden City and Liberal districts are expected to meet today with the Schools for Fair Funding attorneys to discuss recent K-12 spending cuts and what to do about them. "The Legislature cut funding to education by 22 percent, and more cuts are expected in the coming session," Wichita attorney Alan Rupe, who won more money for schools in 2005 in the Montoy case, told the Dodge City Daily Globe. "Nobody wants to go back to court, but those kinds of cuts leave districts with no choice." One option, of course, is further litigation. "They can either fight the Legislature now to increase funding, or shift the burden to individual school boards," Rupe said. "And if that happens, those districts that simply can't afford to shoulder the huge burden will have no choice but to raise taxes."